In recent days, Felipe Calderón has achieved something surprising: to appear simultaneously to be a liar, an incompetent, and a dishonorable man whose word cannot be trusted. A liar, if he knew that his Secretary of Government was negotiating with the PRI, even when his minions denied it. Incompetent, if he did not know and is nonetheless keeping Fernando Gómez Mont. … Dishonorable, if an agreement was reached with the PRI which was then broken. All three cases are bad. But that which has been lost sight of … is the most serious thing: the kind of agreement that the PRI proposed and that Fernando Gómez Mont accepted.

This is what really stinks and what keeps Mexico mired in permanent mediocrity. The PRI proposed backing the budget in exchange for the PAN not joining with the PRD in the coming elections. … The PRI accepted tax increases in exchange for leaving intact its [political] machine in Oaxaca, and the PAN accepted this deal. In other words, taxes in exchange for impunity. Taxes in exchange for bosses. …The PRI negotiated, in the dark, a perverse pact, and Gómez Mont singned on to it with the blessing of this chief.